A Woman Says She Spent Three Years As A Sex Slave Outside St. Louis

A woman who was recently found three years after her abduction
told police she had been held captive as a sex slave since
she was 16, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday.

The unnamed woman, who was reported missing in 2009, told police
she finally escaped with the help of a relative after she had
been "beaten and sexually assaulted by the suspect almost every
day since she was in captivity."

When police descended on the East St. Louis home they found a
young child still at the residence, the Post-Dispatch reported.
The abducted woman claims she was raped by the man who held her
captive, and that he had eventually fathered her child.

The child does not seem to be hurt and a man and a woman were
arrested at the home.

Connie Hunt said she lived next door to the suspects for two
years and didn't notice anything wrong.

"All I know is they seemed like sweet neighbors," Hunt told the
Post-Dispatch. "I didn't know anything about someone being held
captive. ...We didn't know anything was going on over there."